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ORATION 



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HO:^. C. a WILLIAMS, 



OF WISCONSIN, 



AT 



GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. 



Skliu'tlky, ]V[ky :>9, 1880. 



Let mercy to the many be coupled with justice to aH ; 
and let the rights of none be bartered to purchase the 
favor of any. ^ -' 




WASHINGTON, D. C. 

National Republican Piuntino Company. 

1880. 



ORATION 



Mr. Chairnidn, SoUltors and Citizens : 

This is Gettysburg ! Historic and sacred ground ! Sacred in the mem 
cry of the living, and hallowed by the ashes of the dead ! Few places 
on earth possess a more enduring interest. Here a nation's life was res- 
cued, and here its defenders fell. Here the soldiers of the Republic, both 
the living and the dead, won imperishable renown, and here the words 
of Abraham Lincoln linger in immortal memory. 

Though these ceremonies are of annual recurrence, the things they 
commemorate can never grow old. These rocks and gorges, these groves 
and fields, tell a story as fresh and vivid now as when seventeen years 
ago the thunders of war broke over this peaceful village. It is the dead, 
rather than the living, who speak here to-day. Deeds, not words, hold 
the thought of the hour. These silent graves plead with a pathos which 
human tongue may never master. 

It is most befitting that we come to pay this annual tribute ; for 
I take it that the martial hosts who crossed yonder mountain range 
and came on to Gettysburg with sabre and cannon, and bayonet and ban- 
ner, were not more potential in shaping human destiny than the proces- 
sions moving in all our country to-day bearing garlands of flowers to lay 
upon the graves of its loved ones. 

Yes ! it is well that with each recurring year we renew our devotion 
to the dead and read once more the lesson which their example has taught 
us. Its external facts can never escape us here. They rise before us un- 
bidden. We see where Buford fought and where Reynolds fell, and that 
first volley, fired by Pennsylvania's sons in defence of Pennsylvania's soil, 
rings out as sharp and clear to-day as when treason belched its fires \x\)on 
this liberty-loving State. Nor will Pennsylvanians ever forget how 
quickly the guns of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Indiana caught up the 
chorus and sent it echoing through these hills. Again the devoted 
First and Eleventh Corps move over these ridges to confront the whole 
rebel army. And again all down the line and far out upon the right, the 
men of Pennsylvania and all the East respond to the grand old Iron Brig- 
ade of the West ! 

There were no State lines then. Your soil was our soil, it drank the 
blood of our fathers and our brothers, and in it .sleep to-day the bodies of 
some of our bravest and best. What could better cement the foundations 
of a nation or what fitter figure to crown a scene like that than glorious 
old John Burns, late on that summer afternoon, fighting single-handed in 



yonder open field, and, though wounded and weltering in his blood, still 
dauntless and defiant to the foe ? 

Who would ever forget these things while patriotism has a virtue or 
heroism has a name ? 

I need not recount how that battle-line struggled and fought — how it 
was torn by shot and shell, yet closed and rallied again, until overborne 
by superior numbers it was pressed back through these fields and village 
streets until at nightfall it rested across this hill ; and rested here to re- 
cede no more forever. For it was on this crest that rebellion touched its 
high water mark in the North and rolled gurgling back to its home in the 
South. 

Nor need I, a mere civilian, attempt a minute description of the second 
day's struggle. How the battle opened on the left wing and on the right. 
How the line of fire surged back and forth. How men fought through 
the "Peach Orchard" and the "Wheat field." How Sickles was borne 
bleeding from the field ; and how at last the enemy, as if maddened by 
the denial of the prize he thought so easy, massed his forces and pressed 
on— and on — and on — until in yonder rocky valley the tigers of the South 
met the lions of the North, and night closed in upon a scene of carnage 
and death such as pitying heaven scarce ever saw before. Yet when the 
smoke of battle had lifted, the two Hound Tops, in Union hands, stood out 
in the moonlight, staunch as the Republic and strong as the fortresses of 
the gods. And again the decree went forth, " thus far shall thou go but 
no farther, and here let thy proud waves be stayed." 

If both tongue and pen falter before the scenes of this day, what 
shall portray the hell and horror of the next ? The fitful fire of the night, 
the morning's advance and repulse, the noonday stillness, the portentous 
note of preparation, the battle-field shimmering in the soft summer air 
far into the afternoon, and then the final explosion that shook both earth 
and sky. 

One hundred and fifty rebel guns run to the front, and simultaneous 
from "their brazen throats leaped tongues of llame,'' filling the air with 
flying missies, and raining a storm of iron and death down upon the 
crouching forms of brave men hugging the ground, or clinging to the 
rocks and trees and bushes along these slopes. Every form of missle 
was employed. One writer says : " Every size and form of shell known 
to British and American gunnery shrieked, moaned and whistled, and 
wrathfully fluttered over the ground." 

Men were blown to atoms, and horses reared and plunged in their 
death agonies. The Union lines responded, and between the two roared 
the furnace fires of hell. For an hour and three-quarters the angry storm 
continued. The earth was gashed and torn, and great forest trees, 
denuded of their leaves and branches, looked down upon the scene as if 
nature herself stood aghast at "man's inhumanity to man." 

Such was the closing struggle. How did men endure it, and why did 
victory perch upon the banners of the North? It was not superiority of 



numbers ; it was not great generalship ; it was not strategic art. I attrib. 
ute it to one fact and one alone. Tlie battle of Getty sb^irg teas foiiyld on 
Northern soil. Each soldier knew and felt the issue, lie knew that if 
Gettysburg failed, Ilarrisburg must fall ; Baltimore was gone ; Washing- 
ton was lost ; foreign recognition was imminent, and llebellion trium- 
phant. 

It was this thought that lired every brain and nerved every arm. The 
Union ranks were no longer tilled with soldiers of the line, but each man 
stood full "six cubits'' high, a sovereign American citizen fighting for his 
fireside and his home. Is it any wonder that the Union army was invin- 
cible, or that its shattered columns closed again and again and drove 
themselves like thunderbolts of fate against the rebel advance ? 

The giant of the North had been goaded in his home, and rising in 
wrathful strength clutched treason by the throat and hurled it headlong 
from these hills. 

Such, sketched in rough outline, was the battle of Gettysburg in its 
external aspects and physical surroundings. What was its significance to 
our country and ourselves .' Was it a great national tournament in which 
the two sections rode out like mailed warriors to test their sti'ength and 
skill? 

y Some have so seemed to regard it, and have seemed to suppose that a 
few fine phrases addressed to the generosity of the soldiers, a little judi- 
a'ious talk of the "blue and the grey," a few huzzas from opposing regi- 
Aeuts, and an eager interlocking of arms at political assemblages was all 
that w^as needed to blot out and bury in oblivion forever the events and 
causes of our great civil war. What supposition could be more absurd, 
or what idea more diametrically opposed to truth ? 

True, men fought on this field, as men scarce ever fought before ; but 
ideas and principles fouglit as well. While mortals contended here, diverse 
civilizations, the growth of generations if not of centuries, fought like 
giants in the upper air, and while mortal might overcome mortal, no event 
ever did or ever can change a whole civilization in a day. Events may be 
the indispensable conditions of change and future growth, but time and 
logical methods can alone work out practical results. 

Marathon rolled back the tide of Persian invasion and allowed west- 
ern civilization to take root in Grecian soil ; but had Persian customs and 
Persian ideas been invited at once to the Athenian Capitol, the valor of 
Miltiades and his lancers would have Ijcen put forth in vain. 

So Syracuse, in turn, checked Grecian advance and made Rome's 
power and prestage possible ; but had all the conditions of victory been 
neglected, it might have been the Greek rather than the Roman who fin- 
ally entered Carthage. So with all the great battles of the world, from 
Tours and Hastings to Marston Moor, and from Marston Moor to Appom- 
mattox, the price of permanent success has been the guarding with jeal- 
ous care the things for which men fought and died. 

This ground was broken by cannon Ijalls ; the seed was sown in blood 



6 

and agony ; but if both patriotism and statesmanship do not guard the 
crop, our countiy will never reap the fruits of victory. Wise men and 
good men have told us that peace came fifteen years ago. Commercial 
men, grown rich by the misfortunes of the war, have lamented this age 
of "sentimental politics," and have longed for men of capacity and hraims 
to come to the front and adjust all things upon the principles of a sixty- 
day acceptance. 

Great scholars, genulses, and philosophers — men born amid abstrac- 
tions, books and theories, autocratic in their own spheres — have apologized 
for our rudeness and want of culture, and bid us cease our wrauglings 
and observe more the manners and bearing of gentlemen ; take a trip to 
Europe if we can, and see how we appear in the eyes of the world. 

Wholesome advice, timely given and sorely needed, no doubt ; yet 
none of us can forget that even Burke almost endorsed the sentiment that 
'no man is wiser for his learning." And Phillips has tersely told us: 
" That Governments are not made, they grow ; that the heart is the best 
logician ; that character which is but cousin to instinct, is a better guide 
than philosophy." 

Wordsworth long since sang, amid some popular commotion of his 
time : 

"A few strong instlucts and few plain words, 
Among the hei'dsmen of the Alps, have wrought 
More lor mankind, at this unhappy day, 
Than all the pride of intellect and thoimht." 

Clothed in whatever extravagance of language, or of poetic license, 
these exj^ressions may be, all must admit that they contain the seed of 
truth. For since civilization's dawn, "a few strong instincts" among 
the masses of mankind have ploughed their way straight across the opin- 
ions and theories of some of the world's most eminent statesmen and 
l)hilosophers, right on to human advancement and human freedom. That 
this instinct exists in a most marked degree among the American people 
admits of no dispute. Their whole education and growth have tended 
not only to develop it, but to foster and sharpen it. 

Taking counsel of this instinct, and standing apart from all partisan 
feeling or partisan bias, there can be no doubt that there exists among 
the masses of the people of this country to-day an indefinable feeling of 
apprehension, if not of dread. This comes from no want of faith in free 
institutions, nor any lack of physical growth or material develoi^ment. 
The nation's wealth is everywhere. Science, art, literature and religion, 
philosophy and invention, have all brought their richest treasures and 
poured them at our feet. Yet when in the morning of the second century 
of the nation's life, in a government which rests on the purity of the bal- 
lot-box and the free choice of the elector as its corner stone, American 
statesmanship tells us that it has so managed affairs in some way that 
months before a national election is held and before a choice has been re- 
corded, or a ballot cast, one, two, three or four States of this Union can 



dictate and absolutely determine the result in advance ; it matters not, by 
what party, nor by whom, power like that may be wielded, you need not 
tell the "plain people" that something is wrong and that something for 
which these brave men fought and fell, has not yet been achieved. 

Realizing this fact, there is all the more reason why their survivors, 
standing by these graves and by every soldier shrine in tlie Republic to-day 
should "take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last 
full measure of devotion," and "highly resolve that these dead shall not 
have died in vain ; that this nation under God shall have a new birth of 
freedom, and that government of the people, by tiie people and for the 
people, shall not perish from the earth." 

Except we do this, we do but mock these sleeping dead. We do but 
mouth the words and jeer the memory of our martyred President. 

Let us rather, indeed, resolve, that the government which our fathers 
sought to found and our brothers fought to save, shall be maintained — 
shall, full-orbed, rise higher and higher in the firmament of nations ; shall 
be upheld, not only iu its integrity and strength, but in its bright ideal as 
well — a government which enforces law, protects the citizen, relieves the 
oppressed, lifts up the lowly, revives hope, encourages industry, invites 
enterprise, fosters learning, disseminates knowledge, promotes religion, 
punishes crime, shields innocence and rewards virtue — a government, in 
which the rights of the humblest are equal to the rights of the mightiest, 
and the rights of the mightiest sacred as the rights of the meanest — in 
short, "a government of the people, by the people and for the people," 
moving on harmoniously in all its parts, and leading the nations of the 
earth forward, and upward to higher and grander possibilities. 

This is the ideal of our hope ; this the sheet anchor of our faith. 
Whoever cherishes this hope is with us, and of us ; whoever opposes it, 
is against us. To uphold this ideal, these fields were stained with blood, 
and these valleys filled with thebodiesof the slain. 

The future is with the living, rather than with the dead . Those who 
sleep here, did all that man can do for his fellows. All that mortal 
could sacrifice for mortal they laid upon their country's altar — home, 
wife and child, the heart's fondest aftections and life's best ambitions — 
and in place of these, accepted hardship, captivity and death. Whether 
we be worthy of this sacrifice is the supreme question of the hour. Woe 
to our country if it prove recreant to the trust. 

While we honor our dead and can bate not one jot nor tittle from 
the story of their lives, we indulge iu no spirit of exultation. We do not 
forget that the South as well as the North suflered by the ravages of re- 
morseless war, that it was stricken in its homes and wounded in its 
most sensitive pride. It was scarcely master of its own actions. What it 
needed was justice, not jugglery; firmness, not flattery ; and the highest 
wisdom and the broadest generosity extended to it where it accepted the 
new order of things in good faith — but the sternest condemnation and 
the simplest punishment whei'e it " paltered in a double sense." We can 
respect the filial feeling which strews flowers upon the graves of its 



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dead, or rears monuments to their memories. But we can never justify 
any attempt, either by word, act, or deed, to revive or i^erpetuate the 
cause that went down in the conflict of arms, nor can we ever concede 
that he who attempts to destroy his country engages in a cause as high 
and holy as he who fights to preserve it. Standing on the firm ground of 
tlie Constitution, American statesmanship should never consent to ask 
the South what laws upon the statute books may be enforced, but in the 
name of that authority which was guaranteed by sacrificial blood, de- 
mand that every law be faithfully executed. 

With this assured we need only to cultivate a feeling of mutual 
frankness, mutual fovl)earance, and mutual respect. 

Let mercy to the many be coupled with justice to all, and let the rights 
of none be bartered to purchase the favor of any. But as a united peo- 
ple, lamenting the past and cherishing the future, let the nation leap for- 
ward in a career of prosperity and growth, which shall prove an unmixed 
blessing to mankind. 

In this spirit, and to this end, would to God that the flowers, which, 
like the dews of Heaven, descend upon our country to-day, might bury 
beneath them the last vestage of sectional hatred or ill-will. But whether 
this shall be so, or whether it shall not — whether good or evil counsels 
shall prevail — whether peace shall remain, or whether violence and tumult 
shall drive it away, those who .sleep here, have done their part, and done 
it well. Here let them rest amid the glories of the day, and in the soleiun 
stillness of the star-lit night. 

Sleep on, in honor, peace and love, so long as Pennsylvania's fields 
shall bloom and bear— so long as this Doric shaft shall lift itself in beauty 
to the sky — yea, so long as yonder high mountains shall stand ! 



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